While being on the forefront of the industrial development, Gujarat-based borrowers have set a unique example of maintaining strict discipline as far as loan repayments are concerned. As per the senior officials of the country's largest lender, State Bank of India (SBI), Gujarat has lowest rate of non-performing assets (NPAs) for the bank as compared to other states in the country.

"Our Ahmedabad circle has lowest NPAs in the country in terms of units as well as in terms of percentage to the total advances. While bank's overall gross NPAs stand at around 4.9 per cent, that of Gujarat circle hovers around 1.2 per cent. This is mainly due to healthy industries in the state," said A Krishna Kumar, MD & group executive (national banking), State Bank of India (SBI).

Kumar, who was on a visit to the city on Wednesday, informed that over the years Gujarat-based borrowers have shown strict discipline of repayment of loans. "It is not that other states are not doing it, but comparatively Gujarat has performed well in terms of keeping the NPAs low," he added.

Nationally, for the first quarter ended June 30, 2012, SBI's standalone net profit stood at Rs 3,752 crore as against Rs 1,584 crore in the same period last year. Bank's total advances grew by 18.9 per cent to Rs 916,841 crore from Rs 770,891 crore in the corresponding period last year.

While, total deposits for the bank stood at Rs 1,102,926 crore as on June 30, 2012, up from Rs 950,072 crore, showing a growth of 16.1 per cent. Gross NPAs for the period stood at around 5 per cent.